Deputies’ pay in question

Auditor’s office investigates possible overpayments

By David Hotle | Aug 11, 2014

The Washington County Auditor’s Office will be investigating a possible incident where several Washington County Sheriff’s deputies and staff may have been overpaid for overtime compensation. Washington County Auditor Dan Widmer confirmed today that an investigation is under way. He said that the investigation is still in its preliminary stages and that it hasn’t been confirmed if there is a problem. He said that the possible overpayment would only involve a small group of deputies, no more than 10. He said that at this point he doesn’t know how much money had possibly been overpaid. “There might be something, but at this point I don’t have anything concrete to tell you,” Widmer said. “If there is something we don’t know how far-reaching it is.” Widmer said that the possible error was discovered accidentally at about the middle of last week. He said that he expects the investigation to take several weeks. The auditor’s staff will be going back over sheriff’s department records to confirm if something happened and, if it did, to find out how it happened and the scope of the problem. Washington County Sheriff Jerry Dunbar hadn’t returned a call before press time when The Journal left a message about another matter. A Washington County dispatcher said that Dunbar was in a meeting this morning and did not have time to take a call. Widmer said that the sheriff is aware of the investigation. He also said that Dunbar isn’t one of the sheriff’s department members impacted. Widmer said this is the first such incident that he had found since taking over the auditor's position. He said that once the problem is fully identified, the county employees will be contacted to determine a solution to the problem. He said that he is certain the employees will help in any way they can. “We would sit down if there had been some mistakes and work out some sort of a payment plan,” he said. ‘We aren’t just going to say that we need it all back at once. It will be a plan that both sides can live with. It’s affordable but still addresses what problem there is over a reasonable period of time.”